The start of the college soccer season each year triggers a flood of emails into my in-box. For a period of three or four months in the fall, I'll receive emails from hundreds of SIDs at men's and women's college programs. On weekends, it gets nuts with emails containing game reports. Monday is also crazy with a torrent of emails about the latest accolades or previews of the week's action.

Former IOC director general Francois Carrard's comments about American soccer -- "an ethnic sport for girls in schools" -- exposed his ignorance and forced FIFA to distance itself from the remarks, suggesting via a spokeswoman on Thursday that they were his "personal views" and "do not reflect the views or position of FIFA."View image | gettyimages.com

More teams, 12, will make the playoffs this season than ever before, and those extra spots ratcheted up activity during the secondary transfer window. This weekend wiil give further evidence as to which teams are on the right track.

No doubt the Galaxy swung the summer's biggest deal by landing Mexican international Giovani Dos Santos, who could cost upwards of $34 million -- $7 million transfer fee, $27 million in salary over four and a half seasons -- if he plays out his MLS contract. By also adding English midfielder Steven Gerrard, the defending champion threw down a challenge to its conference foes, and they've not been inactive.

In the wake of a frenzied transfer window that closed Thursday, many teams are looking much different than they did during the first five months of the MLS season. MLS teams are much more willing to spend money on transfer fees than in past seasons, when most experienced pros moving to MLS from foreign leagues were either out of contract or nearly so.